Domain Roundtable Dazzles Audience with High Tech Trade Show and Live Auction Twists

 

While the official opening day was Monday (August 13), Westerdal and Douglas arranged a Sunday night cocktail party to entertain those who arrived in Seattle early. Our plane from Florida arrived in time for us to catch the second half of this soiree. That allowed us to catch one of the first of many cool "photo ops" as we saw Jothan Frakes who produced the first two Roundtables hand the baton off to new producer Stephen Douglas (Frakes moved to a new position with Oversee.net's DomainSponsor after the 2006 conference, opening the door for Douglas to steward the third edition of this event).

Fortunately, we also caught Internet Real Estate Group co-founder Mike Zappy Zapolin's turn at the podium near the end of the evening. His pep talk about the endless opportunities in this industry (illustrated with examples from IREG's  many successes) served as a perfect stage setter for the week ahead. Also Sunday night exhibitors started setting up booths to show off their products and services in the days ahead (see our Roundtable  Photo Gallery for shots of several of these displays and the company representatives who were there to answer all of the attendees' questions).

After registration and a sumptuous breakfast Monday morning, the main agenda got underway. I had the privilege of sitting on the opening panel with Ali Farschchian (CircleID.com), Andrew Allemann (DomainNameWire.com), Frank Michlick (DomainNameNews.com) and Ezra James (Modern Domainer Magazine). Our session was about the ever growing domain news media corps. The fact that these (and many other) media outlets have sprung up to cover this industry is proof positive that this is a business that a lot of people are interested in. It is an extremely healthy development for the industry and we are fortunate to have dedicated, knowledgeable people like those on the panel reporting on developments in the domain world and giving their unique perspectives on industry events. 

The next session was a domain industry roundtable featuring Name Administration chief  Frank Schilling (who would return to deliver the conference's keynote speech Monday night),  IREG's Mike Zapolin,  Sahar Sarid (Recall Media Group) and  Adam Strong (DomainNameNews.com). This was a wide-ranging 90-minute discussion with many highlights. Schilling and Zapolin agreed that more and more traditional capital investors are looking at the domain space and Schilling noted that they are pushing prices up because they are competing for a very limited number of high quality domain names that are available for sale.

Zapolin commented on the amazing price escalation involving premier generic domains. For example his company originally bought CreditCards.com for just $100,000. In 2004 they turned around and sold it for $2.75 million. The buyer put some development
work into the domain and just this month filed  a $115 million IPO plan for the property. That kind of run-up is understandably drawing attention.

Sarid said his company has little interest in selling their domains as today's 20-cent click could easily become a $20 click in the future as the value of targeted traffic becomes recognized by advertisers. As millions of new businesses (and domain investors) search for suitable domains, Strong noted that longer, more descriptive names are increasing in value, deflating the long held notion that only short (preferably one-word) domains were worth investing in. The sheer magnitude of the migration to the web is creating many different models for success.

After a lunch break sponsored by NameDrive.com, the afternoon sessions switched to dual-track mode - meaning that seminars on different topics were held simultaneously, increasing the options for attendees so they could customize a program to better fit their specific interests. For dual track sessions I split my time evenly between competing sessions so we could bring you at least some of the flavor from every seminar. Though I did that for reporting purposes I also found it to be a productive strategy for learning more about a wider variety of topics. So whether you picked one seminar and stayed wire to wire (as most did), or opted for conference room hopping as I did, the time wound up being well spent.

As you would expect, the Domains 101  seminar in the Aspen Room attracted the many industry newcomers at the conference. A panel including GoDaddy's Domain Business Manager Nate Curran, Matthias Mueller (NameDrive.com), Sean Stafford (DNZoom.com) and Jothan Frakes (DomainSponsor.com)  covered all of the basics. Curran gave tips on finding a good registrar, Mueller explained how to get started with domain parking and Stafford detailed why good domains make sound investments noting that there are few assets that you can buy for $8 and potentially sell for $8,000. Frakes also focused on the value  inherent in domains as platforms for advertising and branding a business as well as providing a revenue stream from your investment.

While that session was going on, another group of attendees was in the Willow Room listening to a Registrar Executive Panel moderated by attorney Derek Newman. The panelists were Enom.com President Paul Stahura, Rebel.com CEO Dave Chiswell and Moniker.com VP Victor Pitts. Stahura expressed his opinion that other extensions besides .com will grow in popularity in the years ahead. Using population centers as an analogy he said  "New York was a big city 200 years ago and it is still big, but that doesn't mean that other cities won't become fairly large too. For example, Las Vegas has become a large city in less than 50 years." 

Chiswell went a step further saying that acceptance of alternate TLDs had already happened in many parts of the world. Speaking of his own country, Canada, Chiswell said "There has been great growth in .ca and we are now seeing almost as many businesses in Canada using their ccTLD as use .com."

During this session the power of the nTag was demonstrated as attendees were invited to vote on some registrar related questions. When asked what was the most important thing they wanted from a registrar the largest number of attendees chose "extensive domain management features" (43%) followed by "low prices" (25%) and "great customer service" (21%). A couple of other choices barely registered; "easy transfer in/out" (6%) and "regular email notifications about expiring domains" (3%).  

The first of several sessions devoted to search engine optimization SEO 101 and Beyond was next. The all-star panel for this seminar included Aaron Wall (SEOBook.com), Malcolm Lewis (Local.com), John Tompkins (Trellian), Dave Bascom (SEO.com), Dustin Woodard (AllRecipes.com) and John Andrews (Johnon.com). Some of the key points made by this distinguished group was the importance of having original content on your site, focusing on the right keywords and if possible, using a domain that defines the category your subject matter is devoted to.

Woodard showed a series of slides showing how good SEO could produce a 40-fold increase in revenue over a standard parking page. Another tip was to check out the local directories offered by Local.com that will help you add relevant localized content to your site. You can also sell your own ads in these turnkey directories. SanFrancisco.com and Nashville.com are among the sites already using this service.

A pair of back to back legal sessions; TM Bullies and Intellectual Property Workshop, featuring attorneys Brett Lewis, Aaron Kornblum (Microsoft), John Berryhill, Jeremiah Johnston (Sedo)  and moderator Derek Newman also drew well. While a lot of attention is paid to cybersquatters (those who register and profit from from trademark-related domains) Berryhill noted that this is a two-way street. Some trademark owners try to reach far beyond the boundaries of their marks. Berryhill pointed to the Target Corporation as just one example. They have lost three recent UDRP  decisions and in the last two the panels made a point of telling them they had no universal right to the word "target" in a domain name when those names are not used in relation to the narrowly defined scope of Target's mark (as a general merchandise retail store).

Kornblum said that Microsoft owns over 25,000  domain names and that they are delighted to be part of the domain industry. He said the company is supportive of domainers - but not cybersquatters whose activities harm the interests and image of legitimate domain owners. Kornblum said, "Microsoft would like to see the domain community grow and expand. It is the cybersquatting community that we would like to see contract."

While the legal panels were underway a Traffic Domains for Rent seminar was being conducted in another room. Ofer Ronen (Sendori.com), Jonathan Boswell (LeaseThis.com) and Yossi Goldlust (LookSmart.com) covered the ins and outs of the rapidly growing domain leasing field. Sendori's system is a hybrid that allows you to use standard parking that shifts traffic to a specific advertiser only when that advertiser bids more for your traffic than the parking page
will provide. Many large protfolios owners have used the Sendori system with very good results. LeaseThis.com was featured earlier this year in a DN Journal article and they continue to gain momentum in the leasing space with four million domains now available on their platform.

That session was followed by a wide-ranging Parking Services Summit featuring eight leaders in the PPC space; Ron Sheridan (Domain Sponsor.com), Donny Simonton (Parked.com), Jeremiah Johnston (Sedo.com), Jacob Knightley (NameDrive.com), Brian Carr (NamMedia), John Smrekar (RevenueDirect.com), Michael Robertson (Fabulous.com) and Ammar Kubba (TrafficZ.com). Parking may be the single most competitive sector in this industry and Johnston said domain owners are benefiting from the continual one upmanship in that category.

Speaking of one upmanship, after most of the panelists spent much of their time talking about their new graphics rich landing pages, TrafficZ's Kubba made a point of saying (with some justification) that these were features his company had rolled out three years ago, a time when competitors said fancier pages were a mistake because they would not convert traffic as well as "plain jane" pages. Though everyone is now offering pages that look more like websites, several companies still believe the plain pages work better and one said they only offer the fancier pages because customers are demanding them. Kubba said there is more to the equation than traffic conversion. He said more attractive pages have "curb appeal" that make domains more attractive assets to those interested in buying domains who land on more stylish pages. 

All of the companies on this panel have been successful. The best advice is probably to try several of them to see where you portfolio will perform best, as well as whose management system and customer service appeals to you most. The Parking Summit closed the Monday seminar program and led in to the main event, the after dinner keynote address from Name Administration chief Frank Schilling.

Schilling is one of the industry's greatest success stories as well as one of its nicest, most down to earth guys (also a key measure of success in my view). Schilling shared the story of how he built his empire from scratch and, in the question and answer session that followed, what he would do today if he had to start over with just $5,000-$10,000 to spend.

On  the latter point he said he would try to buy a category-defining generic domain in an affordable niche, using his own RumCakes.com (for which he paid $6,000) as an example. A full-blown business could be developed on such a domain that could provide a lifetime income for the owner. Of course, this approach involves development rather than basic domaining (acquiring names that provide a revenue stream without development through either resale or PPC monetization). However as any development proponent will tell you, that approach can yield far greater profits if you have the time, energy and commitment needed to do the job well.

I could spend a lot of time pulling highlights from Schilling's talk, but there is no need for that as the  entire presentation is available on the web. You can  view it here and I can tell you that the 54 minutes spent watching and listening to Frank will be time well spent.

After Schilling's speech everyone boarded buses for the short trip to Seattle's Sugar night club and TrafficZ's official Domain Roundtable party. In a nice twist, the event was set up as a fundraiser for a very worthy cause - Grassroots.org, an organization that supports and enables many other non-profit organizations to help them fulfill their missions.

A bevy of beautiful models was brought in with partygoers then bidding on the right to bodypaint their favorites. While there was a preponderance of women on the auction block, there were also a couple of males for female domainers to choose from. One of those was attorney Brett Lewis who a good enough sport to completely drop the legal profession's usual decorum to help drum up money for the cause. 

At the end of the evening $7,500 had been raised - a number that was short of the kind of support that  Grassroots.org really deserves. I encourage you to check out their site to learn just how much good work they do, then visit http://donate.grassroots.org  to make the largest donation you can.

Roundtable organizers showed their registrants some mercy Tuesday morning (Aug. 14). Knowing that many were up late partying the night before, breakfast was moved back half an hour (hey every little bit helps!).

.Mobi sponsored breakfast and after eating, the crowd heard about the latest developments with the mobile-centric extension from registry spokesman Pinky Brand. Brand noted that four mobile phones are sold for every PC and that more people around the globe now access the Internet though mobile phones than through computers. As an extension that requires bandwidth friendly website designs, Brand believes that .mobi is poised for widespread acceptance among mobile surfers.

The next session focused on Web 2.0, the buzzword that refers to new generation websites that are packed with interactive features like social networks, user generated content and blogs.
   

Pinky Brand spreads
the .mobi gospel

Joe Davison (TechAnalyst.com), Stuart Wood (Wifi.com) and Frank Michlick (SharedReviews.com) gave some pointers on incorporating content and interactive elements into websites. Wood had some advice that is of critical importance. If you want to vastly increase your chances of developing success, "develop a name about a subject you have an in interest in and passion for." Even with today's Web 2.0 plug-ins, developing is hard work and if you do not love the topic the site is about you will soon lose interest in it.

The final Tuesday morning session was devoted to Domain Appraisal and Evaluation and featured panelists Peter Lamson (NameMedia), Victor Pitts (Moniker.com), Jay Finnan (Sedo.com), Jakob Knightly (NameDrive.com) and John Tompkins (Trellian) with Sevan Derderian serving as moderator. They discussed the various factors that make domains valuable. While a PPC revenue stream is an obvious parameter, Lamson noted that his company sells many low or no traffic domains at good prices because they have a memorable and brandable ring to them, passing what is often called the "radio test." That is, if you heard a domain name on the radio, is it one you could easily remember?

When this session moved to the audience Q &  A segment, many of the questions revolved around values outside the red hot .com sector. Lamson said he saw interest in .net  falling off while ccTLDs were gaining strength. He sees a lot of potential in .us, noting that the American country code would likely benefit from the sheer number of small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) coming online. There are 17 million  SMBs in the U.S. alone and more than 100 million around the world that need digital ID's.

On the flip side of the coin, most of the panelists were less optimistic about "re-purposed" ccTLDs, country codes being marketed to mean something else. In response to a question about .TV, Finnan said the extension faces a lot of obstacles. "The variable pricing is a nightmare for  buyers - a domain can cost thousands a year to renew," Finnan said, adding "it would not be at the top of my list for investment." Pitts was bullish on International Domains (IDNs), saying they are growing rapidly in demand and usage as Internet adoption continues to grow even faster in other regions around the world than it is in the U.S.

Lamson returned to speak at a luncheon sponsored by NameMedia where he was joined by the company's Senior VP for Direct Search, Brian Carr. They detailed innovations in the aftermarket and parking platforms at NameMedia. Lamson said the company did $20 million in aftermarket sales the first half of this year and that business was continuing to accelerate. Their average domain sales price was $1,764 with a median price of $1,300. We went into  great detail on NameMedia's AfternicDLS sales program in our current Cover Story and I would recommend you review that article for more information.

After lunch the balance of the day was crammed with eight seminars, running two at a time on the dual-track schedule. The first twinbill featured a panel on ccTLD Power and another called Aftermarket 101. On the dais for the ccTLD session was Ahmed Farooq (Enthropia.com), Richard Schreier (Pool.com), Jakob Knightly (NameDrive.com) and Alan Ezeir (Global Domains International). Attorney Steve Sturgeon, who moderated the discussion, called country code domains the "next frontier." 

There are 240 different ccTLD extensions in the world and many of them represent excellent investment opportunities. Most people are interested in the largest industrial nations (China's .cn is among those that are currently exploding) but Farooq cautioned investors not to underestimate the spending power of buyers in smaller nations around the globe who are flocking to the web (and he is putting his own money where his mouth is).

Schreier, the CEO at Pool.com, showed a slide series with a lot of interesting stats. He said the fastest growing ccTLDs in terms of sheer numbers include .de (Germany), .uk (Great Britain), .eu (European Union) and .nl (Netherlands) while the fastest growth percentage wise is being enjoyed by Russia's .ru, Korea's .kr and France's .fr. His own country's ccTLD (Canada's .ca) was growing at a 24% annual clip compared to 10% annual growth for .com in Canada.

While ccTLDs were being dissected in the Aspen room, those across the Sheraton's conference level in the Willow room were enjoying the Aftermarket 101 session. The panel included Jay Finnan (Sedo.com), Kerry Kelley (SnapNames.com), Scott Ross (Promediary.com), Tom Murphy (NameMedia), Nate Curran (GoDaddy.com) and Victor Pitts (Moniker.com). This seminar gave attendees the basics of buying and selling domain names and details on how the various aftermarket venues work (for further information, we would again refer you to our current Cover Story that is devoted to the accelerating boom in aftermarket sales).

When people wanted to take a break from the seminar schedule they could, at any time during the day, drop into the Douglas Room for coffee, refreshments and entertainment. Parked.com had sponsored the room Monday, setting up Playstation 3 and Wii consoles (that they later gave away). NameDrive sponsored the room Tuesday and Wednesday and drew a continual stream of visitors Tuesday with a poker tournament that offered shares in a 250-name domain portfolio as an incentive to play (as if people needed an incentive!).

Back on the business floor, the next seminar doubleheader offered an ICANN Roundtable and a session called Monetization World  that explored the many options available for earning money from domains. The ICANN Roundtable panel featured ICANN's Registrar Liaison Manager Mike Zupke, ICANN's Chief Registrar Liaison Tim Cole, Jothan Frakes (DomainSponsor.com), Richard Lau (DomainManager.com)  and moderator John Berryhill.
The professional domain investment/development community has been at odds with ICANN recently over what have been viewed as overly generous contract concessions given to registries (at the expense of domain registrants) despite overwhelming opposition from the community. Frakes, who has followed ICANN for years and attended many of their meetings, urged domain owners to get involved in the ICANN process by joining one of the organization's constituencies and if possible attending an ICANN meeting in person where they can participate in public sessions. The first ICANN meeting held in the U.S. in five years is coming up October 29 - November 2 in Los Angeles. By sending representatives to Roundtable, ICANN made a good step in our direction by showing they are interested in forging a better relationship with domain professionals.

The panel for the Monetization World seminar included Yossi Goldlust (LookSmart.com), Chris Ambler (Enom.com), Hal Bailey (Google), Joe Davison (TechAnalyst.com) and Ofer Ronen (Sendori.com). Joe Davison said he had started making money with websites when he was 15 years old when he built a website about videogames. Davison said for some types of domains it is wise to monetize with CPA (cost per acquisition models) rather than PPC (pay per click). He said CPA worked especially well for him with credit card domains because the card companies pay high fees for new signups. Bailey cautioned domain owners to avoid trying to profit from trademark sensitive domains as there is a real risk that you will end up losing far more money in a lawsuit than you will gain from this kind of activity.

The next pair of seminars offered a choice between Madison Avenue and Dropping Domain Treasures. Scott Ross (Promediary.com) and Yossi Goldlust (LookSmart.com) anchored the Madison Avenue session while Chris Ambler (Enom.com), Kerry Kelley (SnapNames.com) and Richard Schreier (Pool.com) shared their expertise on drop catching in the Dropping Domain Treasures seminar.
In the Madison Avenue session, Ross commented on the resistance many ad agencies have shown toward buying high-ticket domains saying, "Many ad agencies don't get it and don't want to get it." Ross added "high-end corporate domain sales are often more complex and difficult to navigate when ad agencies are consulted. Agency execs have a tendency to quickly resist because they can't take creative ownership of the idea. That's the agency ego. More importantly, the client's domain investment is a non-commissionable expense which is often yanked from the agency's commissionable budget. Instead of quickly recognizing powerful, industry-centric domains as a lucrative and perpetual conduits for high-performing online advertising placements, conflicted and shortsighted agency execs often place their own interests above their clients' best interests." However, Ross said "having the know-how and initiative to lay-out a long-term online ad strategy which benefits the agency can convert contentious ad execs into supportive allies."

Ross emphasized that the corporate selling process begins with comprehensive research into corporate structure and evaluations of each prospect's fiscal state and existing marketing initiatives. "Cold calls most often lead inexperienced domain sellers through a wasted sequence of misdirected pitches and unreturned messages," Ross said. "Pitching senior executive decision-makers who have the grasp and direct authority to take action is imperative." This is an area where Ross' brokerage firm has special expertise (typically, Ross will only broker domains with the potential to sell for $250,000 or more).

The final pair of Tuesday seminars focused on the Domain Industry Image (and ways to improve it) and Domain Traffic (a sequel to Monday's Parking Services Summit that explored how the various PPC companies view the current state and future potential of the direct navigation market). The panel for the latter session featured Greg Manriquez (NameDrive.com), Andrew Wright (Fabulous.com), Ron Sheridan (Domain Sponsor.com), John Smrekar (RevenueDirect.com), Sigmund Solares (Parked.com) and Brian Carr (Name Media), with Derek Newman serving as moderator.

Sheridan said that many of the advertisers his company deals with have told him that they get better results from direct navigation (type-in) traffic than they do from paid search ads on  Google  and Yahoo. That underscores what many domain owners have always said - that frequently maligned parking pages serve a real and valuable purpose for advertisers and consumers by bringing them together in a more efficient way. Consumers find what they are searching for and advertisers make more sales - a win win for both sides.

At the same time across the hall the domain industry's image was being discussed in a session led by panelists Jothan Frakes (DomainSponsor.com), Associated Cities Executive Director Patrick Carleton, Modern Domainer Magazine's Managing Editor Ezra James and Sedo's General Counsel Jeremiah Johnston who also serves on the Board of Directors of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA). Attorney Steve Sturgeon moderated the discussion.

Johnston, who spends much of his time on improving the image of the domain industry said it was important to distinguish between legitimate domain investors and cybersquatters who are often mistakenly lumped together in poorly researched reports at mainstream media outlets.

Johnston called on industry professionals to contact these outlets and call these factual errors to their attention so that they understand the clear difference between the opposing camps. At the same time he said we have to recognize and validate the legitimate cause for concern that TM interests have and maintain open, transparent business practices to change current perceptions. Johnston added that the industry needs to engage the help of lobbyists and public relations firms which is something the ICA has been focused on.

Soon after the day's round of seminars ended it was time for the annual Name Intelligence Awards Dinner. Conference organizers said the NI Awards (named after Domain Roundtable's parent company) are meant to recognize the best people and companies in various categories of the domain and internet commerce industry. Name Intelligence CEO Jay Westerdal handed out the awards (chosen by the thousands of members of NI's popular DomainTools.com  site) to the following winners (some categories had multiple winners as noted):

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      Best ICANN Reseller: eNom.com
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      Best Performing Parking Program: NameDrive.com, Sedo.com
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      Best Place to Talk: DNForum.com
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      Community of the Year: NamePros.com
    *

      Largest Net Gain: GoDaddy.com
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      Outstanding Drop Catcher: eNom.com, SnapNames.com
    *

      Outstanding Industry Coverage: DNJournal.com
    *

      Outstanding Secondary Market: Sedo.com, Afternic.com
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      User’s Choice Award: GoDaddy.com, Network Solutions, Tucows, Register.com, eNom.com, Melbourne IT, Dotster, Name.com

After the awards dinner, those who still had some energy left after being on the go for 13 straight hours were treated to a night out at Seattle billiards and bowling emporium The Garage. I reluctantly sat that one out and retired to my room to update our Lowdown  section and get a few hours of sleep before the conference's closing day Wednesday.

TrafficZ hosted the final breakfast Wednesday morning, then the crowd split up for the final two seminars that ran concurrently starting at 10am. In one corner Steve Sturgeon (DomainNameLawyers.com) and Victor Pitts (Moniker.com) talked about opportunities in Domain Development and how to partner with other experts to get sites off the ground. Sturgeon has been actively involved in putting development groups together for the benefit of all parties involved.

In the opposite corner, the topic was SEO and Domains. The panel for that session included Todd Mintz (SEMPDX), Aaron Wall (SEOBook.com), John Andrews (Upper Left Placement) and Dustin Woodard, with Derek Newman moderating. This seminar focused primarily on technical aspects of setting up domains in a way that will work best with SEO techniques, including the use of folders and sub-domains when setting up a domain's hierarchy.
At 11am, it was time for the grand finale - Domain Roundtable's first live auction, an event that set a new technological standard for this increasingly popular sales format. The entire 7-hour plus auction was shown live on the Internet and bidders anywhere in the world were able to place bids live in real time, competing with those who were actually at the auction site at the Seattle Sheraton.

 While the technology stole the show the sales results were also very respectable with the final total settling at just above $3.8 million.  The auction got off to  a rousing start with the first five names selling, including Rebate.com at $1 million and Invention.com at $500,000 (the complete list of auction results can be seen at Jay Westerdal's DomainTools.com blog.)

While the auction was very long (Westerdal said future sales will be completed in a much shorter time frame) the ability to monitor what was going on (and even bid) no matter where you were made the marathon easier to run. The auction hall itself was a comfortable space with ample food and drink available throughout the day, but many returned to their rooms for an occasional break, monitoring the auction action on their laptops while they were off the floor.

At about the midway point, I took a refreshing six-block walk from the downtown hotel to Seattle's world famous Pike Place waterfront market. I could have followed the auction even there on an iPhone - but decided to absorb some of the local color instead. Seattle is a beautiful city and no one should visit without sampling some of its many delights.

Roundtable's first auction outing was so successful it has really whetted people's appetites for the next go round that will be staged at the conference's first show outside the Seattle area coming up April 18-20, 2008 in San Francisco. Westerdal promised the next one would be much improved and considering how well the debut edition was received, that is something to get excited about. The curtain on the Domain Roundtable conference was brought down with an open bar cocktail party in the hotel lounge that ran all the way to closing time Wednesday night. Before heading to the party many people got together in small groups for dinner at various locations around town. I had the pleasure of joining Show Director Stephen Douglas and his lovely wife Denise, Douglas's Executive Assistant Lorenzo Green,
Stephen Webb (IAmDomainNames.com), Angela Siefer (Executive Director, Grassroots.org) and Seth Coman (Director of Ad Services for Modern Domainer Magazine) for a memorable evening at the Metropolitan Grill.

By the time we got back to the hotel the closing party was well underway. Most of us stayed until the lounge manager flipped on the lights and shooed everyone out! After a good night's  sleep (a rarity at domain conferences) I made the trip back to Florida Thursday and the long flight gave me time to reflect on how rewarding the week had been. As always, many new people were met and relationships with old friends and acquaintances were strengthened.

The size of the crowd - approximately 200 registrants - made it possible to spend meaningful time with a lot of people. Larger crowds, like the 500-600 drawn to T.R.A.F.F.I.C., create an environment sizzling with electricity but there is also something to be said for the initimacy of smaller gatherings. Another show promoter - Domain Focus, who will be staging a conference in London Sept. 6-7, have a cap of 250 people on their conferences for that reason.

I learned a lot at Domain Roundtable - no matter how long you have been in this business it changes so rapidly there are always new things to absorb. That is one of the things I love most about this industry - no two days are ever the same! I'll close with a thank you to Jay Westerdal and Stephen Douglas for a job well done. I'm already looking forward to Roundtable round four next spring in San Francisco.

By Ron Jackson